Minecraft, what are my kids playing?

Like so many other parents my children have taken to playing Minecraft. After observing some of the language and antics on a few of the public servers I decided to setup a private Minecraft server on a Digital Ocean Linux VPS server which they could share with friends and relatives, and hopefully play and enjoy the game in a respectful manner. I recently purchased the Audible audiobook, Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus ‘Notch’ Persson and the Game that Changed Everything wanting to know more about how Minecraft came to be. It was interesting to hear about how the Notch Persson creation slowly came to life and grew well beyond his wildest dreams.

My oldest daughter actually penned the following on the subject:

Dear Internet,

I’m Jessica and today I’m writing about Minecraft. In case you don’t know what Minecraft is it is a computer game in which you are placed in a world made out of blocks and you can either creative or try to survive in the world. My parents call Minecraft, Mindkill because to them they believe it kills our brains. This is the part I think they are wrong about. I believe that Minecraft can help one’s brain. In survival, you are using strategies in which your brain comes up with. In creative, you are using creatively in builds which uses your brain. This is why I believe Minecraft is a good computer game and can help the brain.

Thank you for reading, Jessica

In my defense I only refer to Minecraft and Mindkill when the kids have spent too much time on their computers playing the game. It’s actually a very interesting game in that the game empowers the player to really build whatever their imagination can dream up out of simple 1 meter blocks.